Smart grid protective relay revenue to reach $9.7 billion by 2024

Worldwide revenue from smart grid protective relay systems is projected to grow from $5.5 billion annually in 2015 to $9.7 billion in 2024.

A new report from Navigant Research analyzes the global market for advanced protective relays, including global market forecasts for revenue, segmented by technology and region, through 2024.

The use of digital protective relay technologies is changing and advancing the management and control of power grids. The capabilities of advanced protective relays have evolved, enabling advanced sub-second monitoring, data collection, communications, and other capabilities.

The first generations of protective relays are reaching the end of their useful lives and are being replaced with the next generation of advanced protective relays solutions, says James McCray, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. This is a game-changing development for utilities. Grid conditions can now be monitored and managed in near real time, all the way out to distribution substations, where, in many cases, mechanical protective relays with no communications have previously been used.

There are four main classes of protective relay technologies, according to the report: mechanical protective relays, solid-state protective relays, and digital advanced protective relays, as well as integrated digital systems where the functionality of advanced protective relays is built into switches, breakers, or other power equipment.

Driving the adoption of advanced protective relays is a combination of aging infrastructure and, in many cases, a workforce shift heralding the arrival of younger planners, operators, and engineers who have an understanding of and a willingness to adopt and utilize new digital protective relay technologies.